Posted
by
timothyon Saturday January 04, 2014 @12:00AM
from the real-time-pictures-not-after-the-fact-beeping dept.

An anonymous reader writes "For geeks that want to secure their home, it seems that the choice of Do It Yourself solutions are limited. And in case you prefer to use a company, most of them require to subscribe to a contract for 3 years that costs at least $20 a month. In case you want to make a DIY security system without a monthly fee, few options are available. Some products (such as ismartalarm, Lowe's Iris system or also the fortress security) let you install your own system but seem not to be very mature (for some the alarm is not loud, for others they do not use the internet and only a land line, etc.). Is there any recommendation for a basic DIY home security system for monitoring the house and just have notification by e-mail or through a mobile application? Is there any open standard for home automation and security devices? Any suggestion about how to build something simple, affordable and efficient?" How to top the big-name subscription-based security companies is a recurringquestion, but one worth exploring every once in a while, as sensors and software both advance, and especially as more and more people are carrying around phones well-suited as remote monitors for in-house cameras. (And here's a preemptive link to ZoneMinder.)

DIY security systems are nice, but your insurance policy will dictate what you must have. Once you pass a certain threshold of personal property, they'll require you have a monitored system with specifics. What equipment and who you pick comes down to whether or not you want to fight the insurance company when you file a claim.

This means most of us sign with the 3 letter well known company since we know it'll be rubber stamped.

Posting as AC since my one flaimebait post from 5 years ago would bury this pos

And keep in mind: They do not want to pay you. They really not want, no matter what they claim. They will be looking not only for reasons not to pay you, they will look for excuses!You better make sure what you do is sufficient that they cannot come up with an excuse or they will let you hang for drying, outside, without any payments.

Perfectly understood. For my insurance premium reduction they simply require that an alarm be installed which is monitored - ie: automatic calls to police, fire etc. And I test my install regularly. They're quite happy with what I provide them.

I also understand an insurance company's policy is to attempt to pay the minimum, or not pay at all, or other methods of reducing outgoings. I have to say though, that the company I have now - and I'll be quite forthright: It's Amica - were exceptionally good with Hur

Perhaps you should set something up that plays the sound in a room you're not in, which can be triggered remotely. When the thief is distracted while firing into the room, club him in the back of the head with an ATX power supply.

X10 went bankrupt in mid-2013. The current reincarnation purchased the name and IP at auction. So far they seem more professional, but time will tell if they can continue to build and improve the product line. http://www.x10.com/about-us/ [x10.com]

I was a big X10 user decades go. Did see a much higher than expected failure rate on the modules. But it stopped working for me as I added more and more surge protectors and UPSs to my home. And that is not saying that the transmitters or modules were on surge protection devices. Just having one or two on the same circuit seemed to be enough to damp out the signal, particularly if the xmitter and receiver were not on the same breaker (which pretty much meant they had to be in the same room for me).

Google "blue iris security software". I think it's $50 for the full version. It supports a wide variety of security cameras, including those pan and tilt wifi models.

I paired Blue Iris with a 4 channel capture card (about $100) and four Bulldog wired cameras (about $28 apiece) and a few minutes work with dyndns and the built-in web server, and I can monitor my house from anywhere I have network access, and any movement will send snapshots to my phone and record an AVI that gets sent to a secure server. The software supports configurable "dead zones", so if you have a tree that trips the motion detector in the wind you can block it out.

To my knowledge, this is the absolute cheapest you can go and have a usable configuration.

Yes roc, depending on your country and laws, thats the neat way set up:)
Great software on fast a i5 or i7 cpu with 24/7 server quality HDs and a way to get the data when alerted to another external system.
No use having the person walk out with the only recording:)
Another tip would be to read up on any HD cameras - some have more unique password and port settings for their HD stream, others just work:)
Read up on test sites about night use, not all are great at night for the price.

It's also worth remembering (since the objective is to be more secure by the time you've finished) that the firmware of IP cameras is largely crap. Maybe I'm doing some Chinese OEM slave factory whose owner's savant cousin actually cares about the firmware a disservice; but you can't afford to assume that any networked camera, wireless or wired, is anything other than a nasty infection waiting to happen. We are talking 'firmware builds even worse than the ones on $20 routers, except much more enthusiastic about sending video of your house to the internet' here.

You probably will find that (unless you really love running coax), IP devices, some of them wireless, will end up being what you go with; but whatever you do, segregate that crap on its own network with no direct access to the wider world. Any offsite storage/monitoring/messaging goes through a properly configured computer only, not the devices directly.

You probably will find that (unless you really love running coax), IP devices, some of them wireless, will end up being what you go with; but whatever you do, segregate that crap on its own network with no direct access to the wider world.

This is really necessary for pretty much everything, hence the rise of the application-level gateway. For instance, there's lots of remote vulns in VoIP products. Put them behind an asterisk server and keep it updated, never permitting direct connections, and you'll reduce your attack surface substantially.

I think you have to ask what are the cameras actually for. In an ideal world they would get a nice clear image of a burglar's face, which you could give to the police who would then quickly identify and arrest the suspect. Your stuff would be returned intact, they would go to jail.

In reality you will probably get a partial shot of their face, assuming they don't just cover it. The police won't give a shit, most burglary goes unpunished even if you give them evidence. Even if they do catch the guy by then yo

No, that's actually not true at all. As I alluded to in my original response, Blue Iris (the software I'm using) has sensitivity adjustments for how much motion causes the motion sensor to trip, and it allows you to block out certain areas where motion is common, like trees in wind. After a bit of adjustment, my system would not trip on a cat (although it'll trip on a dog if it's large enough). I had close to zero false positives, but I'd get an alert on my phone with a photo if, for instance, someone dr

Google "blue iris security software". I think it's $50 for the full version.

Nothing on Blue Iris, but the mention of closed-source security-video monitoring software got me thinking about government black-bag jobs and software backdoors.

Maybe this is movie-plot stuff, but wouldn't it be (technically) cool to put QR-code recognition into the software such that if you walked up to the camera with the right QR-code the monitoring software would disable the alarm, erase the last 10 seconds of footage and replace it with a static scene as if you were never there? When you are done, just show the camera a different qr-code to re-enable everything.

Our site uses Zoneminder together with Axis M1054 cameras. However, although these IP cameras can produce 1280x800 dpi images at 30 fps, we run them at only 1 fps because of the high load that this would otherwise put on the local server's CPU. So I suppose the program could be further optimized, but otherwise we are quite happy with it.

The 2GIG systems can be installed yourself, but you have to prepared to research. They are big enough that third party monitoring companies support them, but they are really designed for installer use, so a DIY installation requires a bit of know-how. I replaced my ADT system when they bought Brinks, and I really didn't save a lot of money, but I got a degree of control, and avoided the monopoly. Pleased.

I work for a company that installs alarm systems. Dont want the insane mothly monitoring with a contract? Dont let them install "free" systems. You are paying many times over for the life of the contract for that "free" system.

Pay for the T&M up front, and many local companies will do the monitoring for as little as $10/month. (ADT and other national companies wont, but odds are you have a locally owned company that will.)

And beware DIY systems; If you dont do it RIGHT, you can end up paying more due to false alarm fees. Many municipalities charge per alarm after so many alerts. So if you dont know what you are doing and end up sending in multiple false alarm calls the the police, you could end up paying hundreds per incident in penalties.

These days, a single Arduino board would probably meet or exceed its functionalities, which are:

1. 6 binary zone inputs (12 DC switches wired in series on each zone).2. Autodialer for phoning the monitoring company3. Relay control for the alarm horn4. Keypad decoders for the local security panels

Of the lot, only the actual telephone interface would require extra circuitry.

I haven't looked into it lately but it used to be that composite analog video (i.e. NTSC/PAL) quality was the only standard. Any higher quality video was proprietary and often required Internet Explorer. The only other option was using something like zone minder or motion to grab jpegs as quickly as possible and create videos after the fact.

Has the situation improved? Are there cameras available that provide live realtime HD quality video without a dependence on the camera vendor's software or a web browser

Our client base is primarily in West Vancouver BC - the richest municipality in Canada. The kind of town where a $3 million house is a "starter", and will immediately be pulled own to build a 20,000 ft McMansion.

In many years of working with clients in WV, I can recall TWO that actually ever turned on their alarms, and would estimate that half of our clients don't even lock their doors.

If nothing else they demonstrate that Vancouver's criminal class is either really dumb, or can't afford a bus pass.

Our client base is primarily in West Vancouver BC - the richest municipality in Canada. The kind of town where a $3 million house is a "starter", and will immediately be pulled own to build a 20,000 ft McMansion.

In many years of working with clients in WV, I can recall TWO that actually ever turned on their alarms, and would estimate that half of our clients don't even lock their doors.

If nothing else they demonstrate that Vancouver's criminal class is either really dumb, or can't afford a bus pass.

Or maybe the clients have blown all their money on the McMansion and there is nothing inside worth stealing?

Many, if not most, of today's class of people who take things that don't belong to them are opportunistic addicts who would stand out and/or feel completely out of place in a neighborhood such as the parent suggests.

Fact is, this class of thieves is more likely to steal from, in, and around their own class of townfolk.

A resident in a neighborhood such as you describe is likely to employ a maid, landscaper, and an occasional contractor. Someone is always home, cleaning, repairing, and so on, so the alarm is seldom armed.

I had a good experience building a DIY security system based on a M1 controller from Elk Products. The documentation was clear and there are add on options for connecting it to the internet and interfacing with other home automation equipment.

I have done just this. After ADT refused to 'update' the installation I had done about 12 years ago, and wanted to charge me $800 or so AND continue to charge me the $50 a month for monitoring.

So, I junked their old (crusty and mostly non-working) system and bought all my own kit. You'll find you can *always* buy better than what they give you in their 'free' package anyway, and tailor it to your own needs. You can find a monitoring company for around $10 a month. My insurance company doesn't care who does it, as long as it calls the police, alarms for fire, etc etc etc.

So. Here's what I got :

Vista20p panel. It's what most 'big name' companies install, except YOU get to set the 'installer code' and the ability to change / add stuff you hook up to it.Honeywell 6120RF keypad. You'll need a 'keypad' to program your panel. This one also takes care of wireless sensors.Various door sensors, heat / smoke sensors, break-glass sensors, Pet Immune movement sensors.Don't forget the siren:P

If you have a landline, you can hook it up to this panel and have it call your monitoring-company-of-choice when an event trips. If you don't, you can get wireless addons which call them via cell-phone.

All this stuff is easy to order, easy to physically install. The programming for the Vista20P is a bit arcane and reminds me of programming assembly from my youth, but a day or two with the manual and some judicious googling and you should be set.

One of my requirements was that it hook up with the z-wave stuff I'd started installing, and I'm a fan of gadgets. So I *also* bought some touch panels with pretty graphics and stuff on them. They're expensive, mind (about $400 a pop) and their z-wave capabilities were limited. I ended up not using them for that and got a Vera-lite anyway. The wife, however, likes them.. so I consider the investment worthwhile (they can also display security camera feeds).

Note: NONE of this stuff allows you to monitor without a contract to a company. If you want to do that, then you can buy the add-on daughter board for the Vista20P called the Envisalink3. Hook that up to your home network and it can send you mails and stuff when things occur. Also note: if you do that and your power goes out, and you don't have battery backup for the internet gateway it sends through, you'll uh.. not get notified.

All this stuff I bought from 'the home security store'. Which is a haven for DIY'ers. They have a very helpful forum, very helpful staff and their prices are reasonable. I bought my bits a year or so ago and I've been a very happy customer.

A Vista 20p panel is a good recommendation. If you don't want to go the wireless route for the keypands and sensors, then stick to the wired 6160 Honeywell keypad. The 6160 has a larger display then the other keypads, which makes gives you more characters for reading the sensor names, and makes programming easier.
http://www.homesecuritystore.com/p-154-6160-ademco-alpha-keypad.aspx [homesecuritystore.com]
As far as wired sensors go, the two most important in my opinion are the door contacts and motion sensors. With these two typ

There are two better uses for that $20 per month. You could either bump up your dataplan so that you are sent lots of pictures to your phone of any vaguely interesting activity. Or if you have a good data plan then you could use $20 per month to get a data only plan for your security system so that it can communicate via your internet connection or via a cell data system as backup.

My sister has me as a contact for her security system. So I have driven across town more than once only to find one of her family has set it off and the phone is turned down or off the hook. It would be great to just get a snap of whomever set it off. Neice. Nothing. Nephew. Nothing. Guy in balaclava with sack over his shoulder, call the cops and give them a blow by blow description of who is exactly where.

So a DIY security system should not only be as good as traditional ones but should be way cooler.

On a side note, don't mount the cameras up high looking down. All you will get is an image of the robber's hoodies or baseball cap logo. Mount the cameras in a concealed location at eye level. This way you basically get a mug shot. If you want cameras for deterrent you can get fake cameras to mount up high. The only cameras you want up high are to capture the over all picture. I will tell you that you will be sorely disappointed if your security camera only provides enough evidence to say that a guy(race unknown) 5'4" to 5'10" wearing a Blue Molson hat, a grey sweatshirt, jeans, and black sneakers took all your stuff. Get a good enough picture at eye level and the police will drive right over to the halfway house and arrest him 20 minutes later.

If you don't care about out-of-the-box sexy experience, it's hard to beat the Elk M1 as a DYI'er. Their view of DIY'ers is largely ambivalent... they won't go out of their way to solve your problems, but the moment you furnish them with a valid M1 serial number, they'll give you access to the same training materials, downloads, firmware, and accessories as their pro installers. It's a strategy that works for them, partly because lots of those prosumers who buy one to install themselves end up starting companies to get certified officially and install the same alarm systems for other people.

Just one thing... do... not... even... THINK... about buying a cheap TCP/IP-UART bridge for ~$20 on eBay and connecting it directly to both the internet and the Elk serial bus. Make sure you have some kind of middleware sitting between the internet and Elk serial port that can only do specific things, like indicate an active alarm, arm the system, etc. And if you don't understand what I just said & want your alarm to be internet-connected, pony up the cash and buy a proper M1-XEP interface for it. The Elk RS-232 bus was NEVER designed to be directly exposed to attackers over the internet, and mostly depends upon being inside a locked box for security. If you interface it to the internet in a way that allows arbitrary values to get blindly relayed straight to the RS-232 bus after reading this, you deserve whatever happens to you for being a complete idiot.

The only thing it really lacks, IMHO, is the ability to implement Boolean logic for triggering alarms. For example, monitoring the state of the glass-break sensor, the door-shock sensor, and motion-detector and triggering an alarm ONLY if at 2 out of 3 fire within 20 seconds. And having similar logic in other rooms. The firmware in my controller allows you to "sort of" do something like that for a single zone, but IMHO it needs the ability to independently do this in multiple zones.

The nice thing about the M1 is that thanks to Arduinos w/Ethernet and the RPi, you can actually extend its logic pretty easily by using the M1 as your low-level sensor interface, and moving higher-level logic to a Pi or Arduino on the Elk RS-232 bus (relaying events from sensors as they happen to that serial bus, and triggering things like alarms by sending events back to the controller via that same serial bus).

Kludge-tip: if you're in a hurry to set up the system, don't feel like pulling wires right away to each room, and have an unused landline phone cable with 6 wires buried in the wall to hijack, you can buy input expanders and use the 6 repurposed phone wires to daisy-chain the Elk bus to strategic points in your house (1 pair for RS-485, 1 pair for +12v, 1 pair for ground). I had my own Elk M1 wired that way for almost 3 years, before I finally got proper conduit and wires pulled throughout the entire house. I had one M1XIN hidden behind the TV in the living room & plugged into the phone jack (which obviously wasn't used for an actual landline phone), and a second one upstairs behind the nightstand in the master bedroom, along with the equally-kludged keypad. Amazingly, it actually worked (if I had voltage issues, plan B was to add DC-DC converters to boost the voltage from 12v to 48v as it left the box, then drop it back down to 12v at the living room & master bedroom. Fortunately, everything used very little power, and the only time I ever had an issue was around year 4, when the backup battery finally died and the voltage started sagging.

Oh... also... Elk's M1 can interface directly with X10, Zwave, Insteon, and some other standard that escapes me at the moment. The MSRP of their expansion boards is pretty high, but you'll never actually pay those prices anyway because there's ALWAYS somebody selling them for a relatively small markup on eBay. However, make sure you buy the main alarm controller itself from an authorized dealer. Elk DOES track serial numbers of main system units, and if a serial number is reported as 'stolen' by a vendor, they'll re

For us, we wanted to catch a thief, and to record their actions while onsite. If they hear a siren, maybe they'll leave sooner, maybe not. With a camera and well secured recorder, we'd hope to have a good shot at identifying a thief. Adding battery power and offsite wireless transmission of data helps even further. Pay-as-you go WiMAX services like www.yourkarma.com help keep those costs down.

A security system to catch a regular old burglar is a complete waste of time and money. Your odds of getting any usable footage of the guys face is fairly low to begin with, the odds that the police will be able to identify the person on the video is even slimmer, and even if they happen to know who it is finding the guy and proving it is even less likely.

The purposes of an alarm system are as follows.

To minimize the amount of time the thief spends in your house and in doing so minimize the damage and amou

This is the first truly thoughtful post I came across, so I'll add my input here.

You can go to a place like homesecuritystore.com and find all the pieces and parts for just about anything. I installed a simple hardwired system with a keypad, alarm board/box, battery backup, internal and external sirens, and two motion sensors inside place strategically so that you would have to pass in front of one of them to get from room to room. Cost was a few hundred bucks for a basic setup. (Mine was DSC brand). You

It can happen, it's just not hugely likely. You need one hell of a lucky capture to actually get anything identifiable enough to arrest someone and given the somewhat limited manpower available to the police they generally simply can't and won't prioritise non violent crime to actually do any significant investigation. We got done twice a couple years back(they seem to have come back looking for replacement items), forensics came out to do a quick fingerprint dust at the point of entry, but we never even sa

I've messed around with a few things. It turns out the traditional method gets two things right and one thing wrong. Simple wired sensors are good. Changing batteries in wireless ones sucks. Monitoring is also good. What sucks is the traditional marketing strategy, where you pay $50 / to cover commissions for various middle men and that "low cost" alarm.

There are companies that provide the same monitoring service for about $5 / month. You may already own the alarm system. If not, you can buy a traditio

Timothy, Timothy, Timothy. When will you ever learn? "Ask Slashdot" posts belong in the "Ask Slashdot" section so that those of us who choose to filter out those stories can do so. It doesn't work though if you keep posting "Ask Slashdot" stories in other sections.

I've thought about doing something like this. I'm sure something could be rigged up with a few Raspberry Pis along with sufficient tinkering and script fu.

Setup a number of them with camera modules and wifi adapters. Each camera Pi has a cron job to take pictures as frequently as you want and uploads them to a "master" Pi that acts as a web server for remote access and uploading to a remote server outside your home (in case it's stolen, you have captures to potentially identify burglars)

Maybe this is a good time to review some anti-theft tips. Keep in mind the 4 D's:

DeterDefendDelayDeceive

* Install motion sensor lights on the front and back of your house.

* Install a fake camera. For deterrent value, a fake camera will work as well as a real camera, but will cost far less. It should have a bright blinking LED to make it more noticible. You can buy realistic decoy cameras for less than $10 on Amazon.

* If you install a real camera, make sure it is good enough to actually identify the perp. Otherwise, what's the point? Install several fake decoy cameras as well. If the perp is trying to avoid the fakes, he is more likely to be seen by the real camera.

* Put a "Beware of Dog" or "Vicious Dog" sign on the gate to your back yard, whether you actually have a dog or not.

* Put up a security alarm yard sign and window stickers, even if you don't have an alarm system. Yard signs and stickers are available on Amazon, eBay, etc.

* Get some old, well worn work boots, size 14 or larger. Leave one pair on your front porch, and another by your back door.

* When you leave home, leave a radio playing on a talk station. Set the volume so it is slightly audible from outside your home.

* Set up timers to turn lights on and off when you are not home.

* If you have an alarm that frequently goes off accidently, get it fixed. Otherwise your neighbors will ignore it.

* Valuables should not be visible from any door or window.

* Put wood dows or PVC pipe in the slide track of each window and sliding door. These should fit snugly, so they are not easy to dislodge by someone reaching through the broken window. Make sure everyone in your home knows how to remove the stop in case of a fire.

* When not home, lock internal doors. This will prevent an intruder from moving quickly around your home.

* Leave out some decoy valuables, such as an old laptop with no HDD, or some fake jewelry. Decoy valuables should be left in a conspicuous place, but not visible from outside.

* Frost or laminate your garage windows, so a perp cannot see if your car is gone.

* If you have a safe, bolt it to the floor with a bolt that is only accessible from inside the safe. Cut the bottom out of a cardboard box and put it over the safe to hide it.

* If you have a an unused safe or lockbox, fill it with bricks, lock it, and put it in a conspicuous location.

* If you have a second story, don't store a ladder in your yard or shed.

* Trim any trees that can be climbed to reach a second story window, or make sure those windows are secure.

* Use plants with thorns, such as roses, in front of your windows. Keep them trimmed below the window sill, so neighbors can see anyone breaking in.

* Go through your wallet and purse. Do you really need to carry more than one credit card? Write down the account number and phone number for each card, so that you can cancel them quickly if they are stolen.

* Make your possessions easy to identify. Paint the handles of your tools orange or lime green. Laser etch a custom design on the back of your phone or laptop.

* Take photos of your valuable possessions, and record any serial numbers.

I wanted to get the fancy schlage remote control lock for our vacation home to be able to give friends a limited access code. So, I figured I needed an alarm system as well to make sure it was working, maybe a camera too... Then I took apart the schlage lock. You could bypass it with a little knife and maybe a dremel if you wanted to go all wild and crazy.

The bottom line is that your security strategy needs to be proportionate to the risks. Reduce risk first, then make a solution that places your home a

I developed Hydra Control Freak as a result of a personal security problem I have involving a stalker. It's been evolving over a period of more than 6 years now but for 2-3 years it's been available in product form. I still have problems with the stalker (which is why I'm trying to keep my name out of the main stream a bit) which takes up far too much of my time but it has helped developed the product to be extremely effective.

From a commercial perspective it's been a complete failure, as I don't have the financial resources to market it as product properly and I'm rubbish at marketing (I will be trying to present it from a more grass roots perspective this year targeted more for the self installer). From the perspective of it working as a security device it's extremely effective and it's very flexible. At my place I have a great many cameras and many different kinds of sensors, both wired and wireless. You only need to enter my property a couple of meters and I'm alerted by E-mail alerts, notification systems, wired rows of led lights that blink (One per sensor so I know instantly where people are), piezoelectric beepers and video displays that load up automatically, showing both live and looping event views. At night, the TV turns on automatically as I wired a Phidget to a universal remote control, it switches to the AVI channel and by using a simple javascript program that is subscribed to the websocket interface the HCF provides it dynamically loads the cameras and the looping event view. All I have to do is look at the tv and slam the panic button if it's a bad guy. The system allows you to link devices in the same way over the wan, so I also monitor some clients places via the same system. If someone comes onto their property, their system tells my system, my system loads up their cameras (Triggered by the websocket interface) and my panic button triggers their sirens etc.

The Hydra Control Freak is built as a standalone device into a Sheeva plug. It's written in Java and runs on tomcat7, but I've made it a self contained, plug and play product and not a user hackable product (It supports remote software updates though). It supports the following devices:

* Legacy X10 controller (Started with this)* rfxtrx433 home automation transceiver from rfxcom (Fantastic for Europe, not usable in the US)* Phidget I/O controllers, really useful for wired sensors and wired control, can add several of this to one device* Cameras (Reads MJPEG streams continuously so you have instant alerts with activity that happened prior to the trigger* http, both inputs and outputs to propagate events, interface to external systems such as iPhone alerting apps and to expand the
monitoring over the WAN

I tried to make this device so that it was simple to use. To this end I don't support a scripting language for programming it's behavior,rather I have a state machine/event engine with declarative configuration via web-based guis. However, this is also a failure. In the sensethat it appears that this is not really simple for people, you have to be quite geeky to think well in terms of state transitions, althoughmy most success has been with just non-tech users where I configure the system for them.

The websocket interface is one of the most exciting features I've added recently. Using that and ajax and you can make pretty much anykind of dynamic display you like. The HTTP actions can pass over handles on the events to remote devices so that the websocket interfacesthere no how to load up the cameras from the source in response to the events. By using HTTPS I can have a small window open on my machine inside the corporate network and my cameras loads up automatically instantly (In addition to the alerts).

SSL hides the websocketprotocol from the firewalls so that it works flawlessly

If you want to know anything more about the product, you should contact me directly at this point. The website is not updating at this time as I consider how I restructure the sales approach. (tech development with updates is continuing however).

Please don't even consider Zoneminder (unless you want to develop it). It's hopelessly outdated, has very limited support for modern surveillance cameras, and is more or less useless compared to commercial alternatives. Unfortunately - I really wish there was a good open source alternative

You're better off buying Axis- or Sony-cameras and using their monitoring software.

And it's still better than any of the utter crap sold as a "security DVR" out there.

And better off buying Axis? Did he say he had $2500 just for the license for the software that goes on the PC? Axis is only for extremely rich people, their cameras are nearly 10X the cost of normal cameras and are simply re branded junk. We were an Axis dealer for years, I have seen inside all of their products.

A shotgun and a dog. Dogs are an organic, renewable resource and shotguns make that sound all criminals know to run from when you chamber a round. Plus, both work without batteries or AC power. If you're that worried about a break in while you're not home, maybe you live in a bad neighborhood and should move. Your insurance would most likely go down once out of the rough neighborhood. The dog would probably be happier, too.

Honewell or other real security system purchased from a wholesaler then DIY install it. Alarm installers are not typically very smart, so most people can do what they do, BUT getting a real alarm system with the installation and programming documentation is the trick. Alarm companies try to keep that stuff hidden to protect their dealer network and try and force people to pay for alarm companies.

Also to hide the fact that most do not set up the alarms correctly. I installed my own Honewell Lynx Touch

I'm becoming more and more disappointed in home security systems. And this just makes it worse. "smart" home monitoring systems seem to provide all of the features that security systems were designed to eliminate long ago.

Did I leave the oven on?

The whole purpose of an alarm system isn't to be able to monitor my own home.

Did I leave the oven on?

The purpose of an alarm system isn't to be able to check on my posessions, children, dog, or delivery man.

Did I leave the oven on?

The purpose of an alarm system, is for someone else to monitor my home.

Did I leave the oven on?

The purpose of an alarm system is specifically to NOT worry about my home when I'm away.

Did you leave the oven on?

Constantly caring (i.e. worrying) about my home when I'm away means that I'm not really away. That's always been considered an O.C.D. disorder -- not being able to let go and relax. I have an alarm system. If someone trips it, the monitoring company will call me. So long as the monitoring company doesn't call me, I'm happy on vacation. "Piece of mind" doesn't come from checking every ten minutes. It's comes from not checking at all.

If you're going to build your own alarm system, make sure you put a sensor inside the oven.

Z-Wave is nice and works pretty well; I use it to control my lights, heating, sprinklers, etc. When I am away, it turns the lights on and off at appropriate times and lets me keep an eye on things remotely. But it is not reliable enough for when your safety is involved. What many Z-Wavers do is install a good alarm system (either wired or wireless) from a reputable firm, connect it to their LAN, and hook it up to their Z-Wave hub. The Vera hub is open to tinkerers; plug-ins for most popular alarm panels

If you're only 'alerting yourself' there's no fee involved. The 'alarm fee' my township imposes on me is, apparently, to cover false calls. (naturally my wife had one of these once...). They have a yearly false call allowance of.. once. After that they start charging you.

I agree with 'what's the point' though. If I get burgled, I want the police to be notified, and either come shoot someone for me, or turn up with flashing lights if I'm away - not me sitting on a cellphone describing what they're removing f

If you're only 'alerting yourself' there's no fee involved. The 'alarm fee' my township imposes on me is, apparently, to cover false calls. (naturally my wife had one of these once...). They have a yearly false call allowance of.. once. After that they start charging you.

I agree with 'what's the point' though. If I get burgled, I want the police to be notified, and either come shoot someone for me, or turn up with flashing lights if I'm away - not me sitting on a cellphone describing what they're removing from my house to a 911 representative.

While automatic notifications are nice, the latter scenario is more likely to get action from the police. They receive false alarms from the automated systems constantly. If you are on the phone with the 911 operator and you tell them "I am looking at the burglars on my security cameras RIGHT NOW!" it will get a faster response than if your computer calls them.

You can cut the monitoring if you don't want it to alert the police, but then what is the point?

In many jurisdictions, including where I live (San Jose, CA) the police DO NOT RESPOND to triggered alarms. 99% of the time they are false alarms, triggered by the cat, or a relative who doesn't know the disarm code. The police have better things to do.

Police? There in minutes when seconds count - if you're lucky. What thieves don't want is attention. People looking, people noting license tags, people calling the cops. If an alarm sounds in my home the very last thing I'm thinking is going to save me is the police but I will have been warned of trouble. Screw monitoring, I want NOISE and I want LIGHT! If you were a thief would you be robbing the home with the motion sensed lights and alarm warnings or the dark home with no signs or intrusion detection? Low hanging fruit is what scum look for.

If your alarm is a very loud sound system playing an obnoxious song, the police might get called for free, no monitoring. Add another track over the song of people talking and perhaps vomiting noisily, and you are set. They won't show up as quickly as if an alarm had been tripped though, unless your neighbors are important.

Criminals who routinely dine on low-hanging fruit will indeed pass by your well secured abode in search of something less challenging. Hell, a large, mean, barking dog with plenty of "Beware Of" signs will also do the trick.

A professional burglar, usually lacking the meth addiction, would see your precautions as a sign there is something inside worth taking.

My house was robbed a few years back. We had an active alarm. The thieves were in and out while the alarm was still going, in the morning in broad daylight. They don't really care about alarms, because they, know they can be gone before anyone can respond.

After that I put cameras up. I put them in inside corners facing out of the porches where they can't be walked around, and in other places they can't be reached. This has worked as much more of a deterrent, due (I believe) to the fact that no one wa

You can cut the monitoring if you don't want it to alert the police, but then what is the point? Buzzers don't stop murders and they only alert thieves that they have a time limit now.

There is no point in monitoring period. The buzzer going off alerts people who are actually in the area and possibly able to assist in some way. Talk to those people before there is a problem and come to a mutual understanding.

If you betting on cops getting to you just in the nick of time after your monitoring company farts around going thru your contact list and then just...drumroll... "calls the police" to do anything other than file a report after perps have already fled your living a dangerous delus

Depends where you live I suppose.
In the greater vancouver area (Canada), I use US based Alarm.com
The system is great and convenient with lots of system features, zwave stuff, automated locks etc.
A few months ago our house was broken into. I was about 10 minutes away. I raced back and was greeted by 3 RCMP cars blocking my driveway, they were already inside sweeping the house.
We lost nothing. The guy broke in via a rear window and sensor logs show he raced around the lower floor, missed easy pickings,

All i read on the topic makes me think that the best security for the home is still to adopt a wild kodiak bear and let him guard the house in the family's absence . Soft , cuddly , though a bit grumpy on the edges Call Adopt-a-Bear and live happy;) Tigers , i am told by people in the know , are also excellent to keep a house safe.. who knew..

Back in the late '70s, I shared a house with a guy who had a pet Bengal tiger. The animal was a real pussy (of the non-edible kind), but one time a prowler came round, sticking his head through an open window. The pussy-cat snuck up, put his nose to the intruder's face and purred or growled or whatever it is they do. That guy's screams were quite funny.

I was going to mention them. I've been considering buying an alarm myself for a while now, and they're the leading contender as far as I'm concerned. If I buy one, that's going to be the one. For the stuff I need, it's $400 for the system and I agree, I'd go with the $25/month plan just because I want the smartphone toys.